To meet this ‘set-aside’ requirement, Buru has agreed to build a $500 million, 600-kilometer pipeline to pump Canning Basinto Port Hedland. (see “Buru on a roll with pipeline deal,” The Australian, Nov. 8, 2012). The gas will then be delivered to state users via WA’s existing pipeline delivery network.

And this is where it gets interesting:

Woodside Petroleum wants to build a highly-controversial Liquid Natural Gas plant just north of Broome and Japan’s Inpex wants to develop the Ichthys Field nearby.

These are also potentially large sources of new supply. Like Buru, Woodside and Inpex want to sell the bulk of their Canning and Browse gas to China, Japan and South Korea.

What emerges is an ideal opportunity to take Buru’s pipeline project between the Canning Basin and Port Hedland, and use that as the first bit of a larger pipeline infrastructure stretching from Port Hedland to Darwin.

All of this could create the critical mass for a pipeline system that could subsequently stretch across the Timor Sea, Indonesia, the South China Sea and/or Mekong States enroute to Northeast Asia.

The result will be a much more flexible, future-proof pipeline infrastructure.

Over time other, more futuristic fuels also could be pumped through the pipeline. These include biofuels, hydrogen and natural gas.

And if such a regional pipeline were built, it could be bundled with high capacity power lines and fiber optic cables, creating a triple benefit — not just for Australia, but the region.

All of this is outlined in Grenatec’s reports “Pan-Asian Gas Pipeline” and its larger study “Pan-Asian Energy Infrastructure.”

It’s not often populist lawmakers interfering with the laws of economics createa positive sum outcome. But in WA, that could be the case.

–The Asian Century will come about through developing Asia’s comparative advantage. So far, that’s been cheap labor. In the future, it may well be cheap, clean energy.1

–Hurricane Sandy is focusing minds on the need for climate change adaptation. For New York, this may involve erecting storm barriers for Manhattan2 and/or hardening of infrastructure — like burying power lines.3

In Asia, a Pan-Asian Energy Infrastructure comprised of a multi-path, multifuel, multi-point energy and data network connecting Australia, Southeast Asia, China, Japan and South Korea encompasses all the ideas above.

It involves applying just the kind of energy market reform Asia needs.to prosper in the Asian Century.

Consider why:

1. A multi-fuel network can enable better price signals for fuel switching during the long transition to zero emission economy.

3. A multi-path energy production and distribution system will be the best defense against super storms. A template here is the multi-path paradigm of the Internet.

The time to do this is now. Asia’s building out trillions of dollars of infrastructure. No one gains from incompatible energy network autarky. That route only brings high-cost brittleness when flexible suppleness is needed.

Hurricane Sandy was a wake up call. It’s time to wake up. And get to work.